Center for Science and Technology Policy Research
Briefing #28, 27 January 2015

The Center for Science and Technology Policy Research is working to improve how science and technology policies address societal needs. Please let us know what information you might like to receive by emailing us.

In recent years the media, politicians, and activists have popularized the notion that climate change has made disasters worse. But what does the science actually say? Roger Pielke, Jr. takes a close look at the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the underlying scientific research, and the data to give you the latest science on disasters and climate change. What he finds may surprise you and raise questions about the role of science in political debates. Read more ...

"with all the chaff floating around this subject, Pielke's work is better than most at approaching it with a clear head" Sean Sublette, Chief Meteorologist, ABC 13 News, Lynchburg, VA

"a welcome beacon of light on the science of climate change and extreme weather events" Dr. Peter J. Webster, Former President, Atmospheric Section: American Geophysical Union and Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

Radio Appearance by Ben Hale on Ebola Epidemic: What We Know, The Politics and Treatment

Ben Hale appeared on NPR's Mark Steiner Show in October talking about health and political issues surrounding Ebola, treatment, public health implications, and Ebola in the United States. The show joined Dr. Lawrence Brown, activist, public health consultant, and Assistant Professor of Public Health in the School of Community Health and Policy at Morgan State University; Dr. Benjamin Hale, writer for Slate, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Vice President of the International Society of Environmental Ethics and co-Editor of the journal Ethics, Policy & Environment; and Emira Woods, Director of Social Impact at Thoughtworks, a software consulting firm dedicated to economic and social justice, and Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Listen to the program ...

NAS Talk by Roger Pielke, Jr. on the Roles of Scientists in Policy and Politics

In January 2015, Roger Pielke, Jr. gave a talk entitled "The Roles of Scientists in Policy and Politics" at a National Academy of Sciences workshop on "When Science and Citizens Connect: Public Engagement on Genetically Modified Organisms". Roger's talk is available to watch online.

Over the past several years there have been increasing calls for decision support tools in the area of climate and acknowledgement that changing extremes add to an already challenging decision environment for water managers. Recurring droughts, flood events, and concerns over extreme events in the future have created a strong interest among water managers in the Front Range of Colorado about how to plan in the face of these extremes. Traditional methods of identifying alternatives for water supply management may not fully capture the range of existing preferred alternatives, meaning that utilities may miss some of the solutions that appropriately balance among tradeoffs. In this project we seek to co-produce and test a newly developed multi-objective decision tool as a Testbed to aid this process, balancing conflicting management objectives for water planning under climate extremes and determining how policy alternatives perform under severe climate uncertainty. By combining innovative search algorithms, simulation models, and interactive visualizations, the proposed decision tool helps generate and evaluate new alternatives, as well as promotes managers’ learning about the tradeoffs and vulnerabilities of their systems. Read more...

CU Political Scientist Steve Vanderheiden Joins CSTPR Faculty

The Center for Science and Technology Policy Research is pleased to welcome Steve Vanderheiden as a new faculty member. Currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science here at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Professorial Fellow with the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) in Canberra, Australia, Vanderheiden is very excited to join CSTPR. "Although I have known and worked with most of its faculty over the past few years through our affiliations with ENVS, I have not played any kind of role in the Center during that time," Vanderheiden states. "Given my relevant research interests, I'm keen to contribute."Read more ...